How a Tunnel made SEPTA America’s Best Regional Rail 

Philly native and regular SEPTA rider who shouts about them on youtube here: and I totally agree that SEPTA has the bones of one of, if not the best, regional rail system on the continent with the tunnel and all of the routes it runs on. The main reason why they can't take full advantage with S-bahn frequency is due to a lack of staff to run the trains at such a frequency due to, you guessed it, lack of funding. You get the staff to do it, get the replacement for the Silverliner IVs, which they're starting to do, do fare integration with the rest of their services, and in the further future, fix a few bottlenecks on the system, and it can truly be world class like it should be.

Philadelphia almost has an sbahn. Now you just need to increase frequency and do fare intergration so people can use regional rail where the subways dont go, kind of like in german cities (or really any european cities)

It's not just you. That is one attractive train station.

Former Mayor Frank Rizzo was a huge motivator in getting the Center City Commuter Tunnel done. It remains the largest infrastructure project in the city's history. Boston could benefit greatly by linking North and South Stations in a similar manner. Linking the former PRR and Reading Lines has been a godsend to Phila. commuters. I rode the last train out of the Reading Terminal and didn't know what the future would bring. The Tunnel allows seamless travel from Jenkintown to Paoli. Thanks for posting.

Love the tilework at Jefferson/Market East station, the murals depict the four seasons! And Suburban Station was designed by the Chicago-based Graham, Anderson, Probst & White firm, who also worked on 30th Street Station, multiple Chicago icons like Merchandise Mart, Field Museum, Metropolitan Tower, Chicago Union Station, and the Shedd Aquarium, and Cleveland's Terminal Tower (which stood as the tallest building in North America outside of NYC from its completion in 1927 until 1964). I'm glad the Center City stations have level boarding, because much of the regional rail stations don't! Level boarding is not only of course better for accessibility, but also for dwell times as people won't have to take steps up to the door to get in! Meanwhile all LIRR stations, even the ones with low ridership, have level boarding (though not all of these have been accessible, but the LIRR has improved on this by adding elevators and ramps)! Yup, all of the SEPTA Regional Rail lines are electrified, but that's because they simply cut all their diesel services instead of electrifying. Conrail operated four diesel SEPTA-branded routes under contract throughout the 1970s! There used to be an Allentown via Bethlehem, Quakertown, and Lansdale service and this was gradually cut back. Allentown-Bethlehem service ended in 1979, Bethlehem-Quakertown service ended in early July 1981, and Quakertown-Lansdale service ended later that month. Pottsville line service to Pottsville, via Reading and Norristown, ended in late July 1981. West Trenton service previously ran to Newark Penn and this was cut back to West Trenton in early July 1981. The final service, Fox Chase-Newtown service, initially also ended in early July 1981, re-established in October of that year as the Fox Chase Rapid Transit Line, which then ended in 1983, thus today's Fox Chase Line just ends at Fox Chase. The services were phased out due to low ridership, a lack of funding outside the five-county area of SEPTA, withdrawal of Conrail as a contract carrier, aging equipment that needed replacement, and a lack of SEPTA-owned diesel maintenance infrastructure. The death knell for any resumption of diesel service was the Center City Commuter Connection, which lacks the necessary ventilation for exhaust-producing locomotives!

When I visited Philadelphia from Europe, the difference in cleanliness and quality between SEPTA and the different subway lines was staggering to me. Thanks for covering the interesting history in more detail :D

Taking the regional rail from Temple to 30th street is literally the most convenient thing ever for me as a student who lives on the NEC, plus I can get to PHL really easily if I need to!

I'm glad you showed Reading Terminal Market! It's one of my favorite places to go when I'm in Philly.

Not a tunnel, but a great project that has unified a system is NJ Transit's Secaucus Junction. NJ Transit operates in two divisions, Hoboken and Newark. The Hoboken Division was part of the Erie Lackawanna Railway, while the Newark Division was once the Pennsylvania Railroad and Central Railroad of NJ. These two divisions were never previously integrated (because competing railway companies), even when both were under Conrail. When ownership was passed to the state in 1983, they built connections where trains from the Hoboken Division would be able to switch onto the Northeast Corridor, but they still never had a direct transfer. That is until Senator Frank R. Lautenberg helped allocate for funds to build Secaucus Junction. Frank R. Lautenberg was a big supporter of NJT and Amtrak, including Access to the Region's Core...which was of course cancelled by Chris Christie and later resurrected as the Gateway Program. Because of this when it opened in 2003, the station was named in honor of his dedication. When he passed in 2013, he was fittingly carried onto an Amtrak funeral train from Secaucus Junction en route to DC. The two-track Northeast Corridor embankment was expanded to three tracks for a mile on each side of the station and to four tracks through the station itself, allowing Amtrak and nonstop NJT trains to pass stopped trains. The two-track Bergen County Line was re-aligned southwestward to join the two-track Main Line to pass through the station on the four-track lower level. Secaucus Junction is such an engineering marvel that was a no-brainer and has helped so many. Designing such a massive station without disrupting the active NEC and making it withstand the nearly constant vibration was such a challenge, but they took it head on. NJT buses, trains, and light-rail aren't perfect, but with how much of the state you can travel to and from, the NJT system really does punches above its weight.

As a former locomotive engineer on septa’s regional rail lines you did a good job in this video

Great job explaining a very complex set of topics and history. Very happy for the tunnel and continued SEPTA enhancements. The Reading Terminal is a treasure! I am sure that, as a Dutch person, that you find the Pennsylvania Dutch (aka Deutsch/German) term odd/confusing!

The 30th Street station is a beautiful station! SEPTA has a great idea on running trains through the Central City.

Great video, more professional than others on RU-vid. I lived in several places in Philly & the 'burbs before retiring and always chose to live within walking distance of rail. In Philly & the inner-ring suburbs, you'd almost have to try to find an area that's NOT within a short drive of a rail station.

Thanks for this thorough look at SEPTA Regional Rail. It does really have the best bones for a regional rail system in the U.S. with the gem of a genius tunnel the Center City Tunnel is. I hope SEPTA will be given the funding it needs to bring things to the next level in terms of frequency. There's just too much potential here not to!

It's amazing that they managed this makeover in the face of suburbanization.

The regional connector in LA is also a great example. So many people have benefited from it

Fantastic video, you should look at the Thameslink project in London that originally started in the 1800's that connected rail lines north of London to South London... That Dutch food thing...glad you made it out alive! Just buy one of those septa rugs lol lol.

It’s really cool to see someone follow my same “schedule” for when I go into the city! (I love to see all of the historical buildings and museums). SEPTA makes it MUCH easier to go to the city and it’s nice to see that others also think that way!

Good video, Thom. I have two notes: 1. If traveling from 30th St Station to Suburban Station I recommend sitting on the left hand side of the SEPTA train. It gives a great view of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Schuykill River, and the new Acela trainsets waiting to be put into service. 2. Above Jefferson Station/Market East the escalator takes you to the Convention Center but it was the site of the Reading Railroad Terminal train shed. Your video shows they have pillars left of the original trainstops or rail blocks to stop a runaway train. Plus they put metal strips in the tile where the dozen or so train tracks led up to the trainstops. I used to the take the Reading line to that terminal in the 60s and 70s. Not all Reading lines were electrified so RDCs were used on the small lines. Those lines all had to close when the Commuter Rail Tunnel opened as only electrified trains can pass underground. I'm now 66 and use the SEPTA Senior Pass which gives free rides on anything in SEPTA. I use it to go from my mother's house in a NE Philadelphia suburb to Newark, Delaware close to where I live. The commuter tunnel means there are some trips I can ride straight through the city without getting off the train at a center city station to switch lines. Downside is the SEPTA Silverliners have no bathrooms.

When I was IT consulting in Center City, I rode SEPTA R2 every day. Drove 15 minutes from my home in New Castle, DE to the state-owned station in Claymont, DE, parked for free at the station, and caught the train to Suburban Station. It was a short walk from there to my client's offices. If my consulting colleague and I decided to stop for a beer after work, I didn't worry about there not being a later train. Best commute ever.

Thanks. I had noticed the cages between now and the couple times I took the train in the early 70s, but had no idea about how or when it happened. You missed the beautiful mural on the brick wall going down into Jefferson station. I use Septa much more now that I am retired and have a free transit cared

Nice video Thom! Being a Septa rider I know you had to pack a lot of info into this video.

As someone who doesn't know the city, I found this really interesting because you explained it so clearly with excellent use of maps and diagrams. Joined up lines should come from joined up thinking and sometimes city planners don't quite get it and when they do, the tax payers have to be convinced.

Thank you for showing me how to get from Amtrak to Septa; I’m doing the trip in a few weeks and never did it before.

Grew up a block and a half from the Folcroft station on the Wilmington/Newark Line, formerly the "R2" My freshman year at Temple I took a train every single day, and used it on weekends to go into the city to hang out with friends on-campus. I used the thru-running feature often, as I had friends in Jenkintown I could get to just by staying on the train I picked up near my house in Delco. The faregates are relatively new. I graduated undergrad in 2016, and at that point we still had paper/plastic passes that had "M" or "F" stickers on them (male/female - presumably to negate pass sharing?) Regardless, as someone who has lived in Baltimore for the last 8yrs, and takes MARC daily, I can say I fully took for granted the SEPTA regional rail system. It's world class, and if you tried to build that system from scratch anywhere in America today, I'm convinced it'd cost well over a trillion.

thank you for finally highlighting septas RR! once they finish the 'reimagining regional rail' overhaul and increase frequency we'll truly have a world class system. also, you should come check out the suburban trolleys/nhsl! very unique by US standards

I lived in suburban Philadelphia and commuted into the city for many years. For many years I used the former PA Railroad’s Paolo Local. For the same number of years I used the former Reading Norristown Local. Because the PA trains stopped at Suburban Station I had a long walk through the tunnels to my job in the Independence Hall area of the city. The connector is a great improvement.

I always wondered how SEPTA got a circular underground rail line below Philadelphia. Great idea, I TY thought. Commuter trains can enter from one branch and go out through another. Now I know,Tom!

For such a young RU-vidr he really does well explaining the SEPTA system and the history.

This 60+ Philly boy remembers when there were the two competing Pennsylvania RR and Reading RR. Dear Old Dad often took me to the Reading Terminal Market. Had occasion to use just about every station on the SEPTA commuter rail. After relocating to Long Island, I often visited friends and relatives and/or did other business in Philadelphia by taking LIRR to NYP, switching to NJT to Trenton, and then at Trenton, switching to SEPTA. The reason there is a Chestnut Hill East and a Chestnut Hill West is that one was Pennsy and the other was Reading. When they built the center city Commuter Rail Tunnel the streets were a mess and traffic was severely impeded. One neighborhood that was especially affected was Chinatown, whose restaurant industry took a big hit for a few years. One Chinatown resident put up a sign reading "Our forefathers built the railroad -- They never expected it to come this far!"

Looking forward to the minding the gap series (great name) and the videos from Philly. My dad grew up near the 101 trolly line and lots of fam still lives in the area so Its got a special place in my heart. Now I gotta actually visit the city proper.

Great video! The CC Commuter Tunnel is an engineering marvel because they had to figure out how to cross the Broad Street Line between Suburban and Market East

I'm old -- and I remember when Market East had this really fabulous urban shopping mall, The Gallery. It used to blow my mind as a suburban kid that you could take a train right into a four story mall. Seemed like the future at the time, but the future is now the distant past. Does it even exist still? Been many years since I've been there but last time I was there it was a ghost mall.

If you come into Philadelphia on Amtrak you can board any Regional Rail train that day for free, just by showing you ticket to an attendant at the station. If you have a return Amtrak ticket you can do it again. The tunnel was made in the mid 1970's connecting Penn Central and Reading lines. It is one of best infrastructure projects of the city. Before the tunnel was constructed, you could walk between reading Terminal and Suburban Station, or take the Market Frankford line from 11th Street to City Hall or stay on to 30th Street. The inner city transportation trains are only two lines, Market-Frankford and the Broad Street Subway, crossing at City Hall.. And there is a New Jersey connection with the PATCO line taking you over the Benjamin Franklin bridge in to South Jersey.

Very cool ideas from you at the very end. Oh, my. Has SEPTA changed since I lived in West Philly for school at Penn. (Class of '80)

Awesome Thom! Happy Monday from South Florida! SEPTA also has the Broad Street subway and the Market-Frankford El. Also the impressive Philly light rail/streetcars. 👌

Years ago, I lived and worked (at the Franklin Institute) in Center City. I moved south during the early part of the Mayor Frank Rizzo era and thus missed the completion of The Tunnel. This was an excellent video!

Thanks for all the Philly content. I have long lived away from there but grew up there. I would have liked to see more of the Fern Rock station, since I often used that one.

Being born and raised in Philly and a regular user of the regional largely to Wilmington,or NYC…occasionally I’ll travel to places like Norristown or Doylestown…

I like the idea of a centre-city tunnel on commuter rail systems; Melbourne, Australia has an example of such a set-up in the form of the City Loop. As for Philadelphia's tunnel, I enjoy learning about it here because I didn't really know too much about it before. Auckland, New Zealand is also getting something similar; called the 'City Rail Link'. It's an extension of the underground line past the existing Britomart station, and will meet the North Auckland Line at the rebuilt Mt. Eden station.

Lifelong Phila resident. Great video, many facts shared that I did not know. I remember the pushback during the 1970s to build the connector. It's a very short distance geographically (maybe 6 city blocks) but what a game changer. It took lots of vision (and support from the construction unions) to get it done.

Now, I know a lot more about the SEPTA Center City Commuter Connection (CCCC)! I didn't know Reading Terminal is now a market! Also, I can see how such a connection would be useful in Chicago (with the four terminals) or Boston (which, just like pre-1984 SEPTA, is cut in two, although there are/were proposals to unify them). Thanks for the video!

Meanwhile, here in Southern California, Metrolink is taking the first baby steps to becoming a regional rail system. First, they're using the term "regional rail" to describe their system. And the schedule on our line, the Antelope Valley Line, has been radically restructured. No longer is it frequent service at rush hour, and then infrequent service during the rest of the day. In the new schedule, there's a train every hour all day long between Los Angeles and Santa Clarita, and then half of those trains continue all the way to Lancaster. We rode a late morning train into Los Angeles the other day, and came home on the 3:30 PM train. Both trains were full, to the point where the conductor had to ask people not to put belongings on the seats, but leave them free for other passengers getting on the train. Lots of people got on at the little stops in the San Fernando Valley to come home to the suburbs. Based on one day, it looks like the regional rail concept may be a success here in car-centric Southern California!

Customarily when I've traveled up north from Virginia, I've usually transferred @ 30th Street Station since my trip would normally be entirely by rail. However, the Memorial Day weekend of 2018 I took the bus up to Philly. That terminal is across from that Suburban Station. So, it was my first experience with that station. It was a good experience. By and large it seems that a decent portion of the the Philadelphia transit infrastructure is well maintained. I really would like to spend more time laying over at 30th Street Station. Its aesthetics as mentioned in your remarks are pleasant as is the Suburban Station architecture

Thom! A new Amtrak route is now open! The train is the borealis operating from Chicago to St. Paul Minneapolis.

Excellent video and commentary. Thanks.😍✌

Really nice. Thanks

Chicago offers the greatest benefit to cost, with intercity/commuter stations literally next door to each other. I wish they had the leadership to get this done!

I’ve been doing a lot of fantasy transit maps, and it just so happens that I just did Philly’s regional rail yesterday.

Thank you for this fascinating video. I have sampled some of the SEPTA routes, and agree with all that you say. It was fortunate that both the Pennsy and Reading railroads believed in electrification for their suburban routes. Your reference to Boston and Chicago rail routes is very relevant, but it is hard to see either MBTA or Metra embarking on a wide ranging electrification programme, but you never know !

Hey Tom, another great video as always I have actually been to 30th St. station when I’ve taken the Pennsylvanian to visit family in Philadelphia I am hoping to make it there for Independence Day, but we shall see what happens

30th Street Station is awesome!!! I can’t believe it had a landing strip on the roof!! Thank you for this informative video about this awesome tunnel!!!

Jefferson Station/Market East concourse is so much better now than what is was a few years ago. As you say it's nice and clean and the seats waiting for trains are for commuters. Those areas used to be open for anyone to sit and you'd get some shady people there along with homeless sleeping in those areas.

Excellentt!! Well done.

Nice job covering SEPTA. At 11:01 there's a brief view of the convention center. The ceiling is the roof of the old Reading Market Street terminal, it was open at the far end. There were about a dozen tracks entering, and terminating there. That was our station when we went down to Philly when I was a child. If you look at the floor, there are inlaid decorative elements echoing the location of the old tracks. I remember when the Silverliner IVs were new. You should have experienced what was before. You can see one at 13:52 They were electrically driven and similar to the Silverliners, but much cruder. Acceleration was by the engineer selecting one of about seven taps on a transformer. You really felt it as he selected higher and higher taps (rrrrr, pause, rrrrr, pause, rrrr, etc. until you were up to speed). No air conditioning, jut windows that you could open. There were brass latches on each side of the window that you squeezed and then you could lift the window. Their use faded in the 70s as the Silverliners were introduced. Good memories.

Love Philly and go a few times a year...usually taking NJ Transit from NYC to Trenton then transferring to SEPTA. If you haven't been yet, you should go to Strasburg, about an hour outside Philly in Lancaster County. Nicknamed Train Town USA...you got one of the best RR museums there and one of the oldest heritage railroads. I make it a point to go there every year...never gets old!

Excellent presentation!

Great video with an excellent commentary

Another awesome video with a lot of information. I've only been on SEPTA twice (Airport and Trenton Line) and they've got a good system up there. I remember being wowed by the view coming up the steps and into the Amtrak Hall at 30th Street which also had that old style solari flip board which displayed the train arrivals and departures.

Remember Philadelphia had two of the largest ,richest Railroads in the world , Reading RR and the Pennsylvania RR

Thank You For Awsome Video Of Awsome System😊

I love it ! I used to take the R5 to go to the Penn State Ogontz campus in the eighties.

Loved the video and am very happy for our neighbors to the North for having such a great infrastructure. You guys are very close to achieving public transit nirvana!

„Minding the gap“ sounds like a series name that Geoff Marshall would use 😂

Really excellent and thorough report on this unique through connection. There was a lot of NIMBY resistance to it when it was first proposed because people could not imagine how it would actually improve two dying railroads that were having trouble just keeping their trains running. And they were still running some MP54 trains at the time! The (Market East) Jefferson Station really did look ultra modern with the MP54 trains in it. Looking forward to your continued coverage of SEPTA (SCHELPTA).

Thanks for an excellent presentation on the Center City Connector and its importance. I agree with you that Philadelphia has probably the best regional rail system in the country.

I enjoyed the video👍👍

Great video, Thom. Metra: Good thing a few former Illinois Central lines were electrified and Metra kept them like that. Metrolink should start with the San Bernardino Line from LAUPT to Univeristy of Redlands, since they own the line. Brightline could use Rancho Cucamonga to Los Angeles over Metrolink to get to Downtown LA. Metrolink should then electrify the Antelope Valley Line from LA to Lancaster, that would allow CAHSR into LA for the meantine, just like what Caltrain will do for CAHSR...

A fascinating fact is that the Pennsylvania Railroad and Reading divisions use slightly different catenary wires. SEPTA has been spending several years rebuilding the Reading division's catenary to match the PRR profile so the pantographs on both divisions' trains don't wear down differently. A nice coincidence is that both divisions use 12 kV at the same 25 Hz frequency.

That SEPTA pass appeared to have the MasterCard symbol on it from the brief glimpse I had.Turning locomotives around at terminus stations use to be very common but less so now with diesel and electric multiple units.For trains which still have locos you can have remote driver cabs or a loco at both ends like the French TGV or English 125s.

フィラデルフィアの歴史知らなかったので、とても楽しめました！

OMG an old MU at 13:56

Really hoping SEPTA can one day implement their plan to increase frequency all day as they outlined in their 2040 vision. Unlike most other commuter rails in the US they actually have a fair shot of doing it since probably the biggest hurdles of the tunnel and electrification are already done. I really hope Metra and Boston can electrify one day hoping maybe Caltrain will show how beneficial it is but we’ll see

Jefferson Station is very nice. the Norristown Transportation Center, on the other hand, is an outpost of Hades most days ...

reading terminal is the best unlike food halls its still pretty much the same thing it always has been a market with the Amish who take the train in to Philly, the tons of butchers, place to buy produce and goods, tons of amazing foods, and they try very hard to keep it a non tourist only destination bassets ice cream the first and longest running ice cream shop is still in there too and philly invented ice cream so its fitting! ya used to take food and cargo off the trains in trade shed off the freight trains and haul it down to the market to sell was a good system

In addition to a tunnel in Chicago, Metra just needs to electrify their entire network, and they could too if they wanted. Metra owns the tracks of six of the 11 lines so if they wanted to electrify those lines, they could. One of the lines is already electrified. I get that it’s harder to electrify the lines where the tracks aren’t owned by Metra like the Union Pacific lines and the BNSF line as well as the north Central service, which runs on tracks owned by the Canadian National, but there’s ways around it. Personally, I think Metra needs to take ownership of all the tracks they operate on, but that’s just me. I also think Union Station is also a perfect candidate for an underground connector. In the station was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad after all

HELLO FROM PHILADELPHIA

Great video

Nice!

Reading Terminal is probably my favorite spot in Philadelphia. Next time you are there have a sandwich at DiNic's. Also at 12:58 in the video if you see the rail infrastructure, that is the former right of way to the original Reading Terminal station which closed when the tunnel opened. Some of that space was turned into a rail park further down the line (very similar to the New York Highline).

excellent!!! as a local guy, I can say your narrative is spot on. You might have just mentioned that the connection at Fern Rock with the Broad St. subway is another connecting link. My only beef is that back when the tunnel was built, Mayor Rizzo chose that over building the Roosevelt blvd subway extension to NE Philly (my neck of the woods), an even more needed project today- take a ride on the blvd and you'll see why. Anyway, the tunnel got built and yes it is a great addition to our regional system. A great job in your narration, and the historic details about Reading Terminal and the old Broad St station were very accurate.

as a current Hyde Park resident and frequent Metra Electric commuter, I feel you on that last proposal! I also think it would be neat if maybe the St Charles Air Line were electrified and we could have ME trains running into Union

What would take things to the next level was if the tunnel was extended east across the Delaware River to provide access to a (much) expanded NJ Transit regional rail system. Jersey used to have a tonne of passenger rail services in the mid-20th century - but now south Jersey just has the 2 lines. If there was a tunnel allowing rapid connection to downtown Philadelphia, it could make it so much easier to get around the region and make driving almost pointless. I could see at least 2 possibly 3 additional lines. In addition to ensuring bi-directional service all day on all lines, at least every 30 mins.

One thing would make SEPTA regional rail better is consolidation the two Radnor stations so the Norristown Highspeed line could function as a circumferential connection the Norristown, Paolo and Market Frankford lines directly

The North South Rail Link (NSRL) was a rail link proposed to connect the MBTA commuter rail lines terminating at North Station with the ones at South Station in Boston. The NSRL was just one aspect of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts's larger plan to bury Interstate 93, known as the Big Dig. Of course the burying of the highway happened but the city center regional rail tunnel never did. I know it's a lofty dream, but hopefully the NSRL gets built in my lifetime :)

Phila also has some of the oldest RR lines in the country , built before other cities even existed

It's not just you 30th street station is very good for us standards

I believe the through running tracks they are adding in Los Angeles' Union Station are mainly for Amtrak Pacific Surfliner trains and eventually California High Speed Rail, not Metrolink. LA's Metro Rail did recently build their Regional Connector project, which is a similar downtown tunnel but for light rail, connecting two light rail lines that ended on the west side of downtown to two halves of a former U shaped light rail that was on the east side of downtown.

Couldn't find Oswald Laurence anywhere - guess I'll have to watch again to make sure \m/

Boston needs to do the same and do the north south rail link

Trains are awesome

Do You know the S-Bahn system in Munich, Germany? They've also a tunnel through the city as a backbone. This tunnel, called "Stammstrecke", reached the end of capacity and they are going to build a second one (for tons of money).

As a New Yorker, I wish Grand Central Madison never happened. In reality, they should’ve made a junction under 34th and Park Ave that connects the NEC to Grand Central. This would allow complete thru running between LIRR, NJT, and MetroNorth. However this is a pipe dream due to politics and the sheer complexity of tunneling under Midtown Manhattan and the Lexington Ave line. At this point, I would love for them somehow to extend the shuttle past Times Square and down 7th or 8th Ave to Penn Station to connect the two Manhattan terminals and the busiest subway station.

I had such a great time riding lots of SEPTA regional rail suburb to suburb thru Center City! Back then there were numbers such as R1 Airport, R5 Doylestown, etc. Thank you for explaining the main reason and now it totally makes sense why there are Chestnut Hill East and West branches! For most suburbs there are usually two ways to reach Center City, either by SEPTA regional rail, or by bus/trolley to subway. Doylestown can also take 55 to BSL, Norristown can also take Norristown High Speed Line to MFL, Media can also take 101 to MFL, just to name a few.

As usual, excellent analysis! I am a polyglot from Alaska, who was educated in Germany and Switzerland. I flew to Philly once to go to the symphony, but I was mystified by trying to use the public transportation system to get from the airport into and around downtown. I wish I had seen this video before that trip because I would have better understood the vagaries of the Philadelphia system. In my beloved Alaska, we are a century behind the rest of the world. The spectacular Alaska Railroad, for example, departs from Anchorage for points north a couple times a day during the summer and once a week in the winter. Anchorage city planners are visionaries trying to catapult us into the 1980's. I sold my car six years ago and get around by bus, Alaska Airlines, and regional commuter air services. I give kudos to the Anchorage People Mover system despite their being financed by a city government populated by officials that have never ridden a bus in their lives except between the airport and hotels in Puerto Vallarta and Orlando.

Hi Thom, love your videos way back when you were in Chicago…and speaking as a former heavy user of the CTA Blue Line… Do you think a BLOOP down Desplaines St. from Milwaukee Ave. south to Congress/Ida B. Wells Pkwy. would help with terminal connectivity between the OTC and Union Station? Maybe having the UIC-Halstead/Jefferson Park service via Dearborn and O’Hare/Forest Park trains via Desplaines? The new Desplaines Subway would have a station at Washington St. and Adams St. The west Loop would really be dynamically transformed! That would even allow enough room for an underground tunnel from OTC along Canal to connect to Union Station and bury the UP services.

As someone with a newly found interest in riding trains just for the trips, how do you go about planning your trips? are there any universal use apps for tracking? I don't imagine you just "ride now and learn the system of where you get off at later" kind of person. Love your content btw

I was a little afraid when you said Fern Rock…not the nicest of places. I realized after watching this video that I sort of took regional rail for granted when I lived there. It was really useful, especially when I lived in Manayunk. But no Pennsylvania Dutch food review!?!? lol

"And then there's Boston..." BWAHAHAHA. My guess is it'll take another two generations for folks to recover from the Big Dig... But you're right, other than speed, the SEPTA trains felt very much like a slow version of NS's Sprinters... I almost expected to see Rotterdam, not Philly, in the background...

I’ve lived here almost 25 years… I had no idea there was an upstairs😮😮😮😮😮